First Looks: Joby Gorillamobile Ori for iPad

Joby Gorillamobile Ori for iPad

Late as it might have been to market, Joby’s Gorillamobile Yogi case and detachable stand set made a ton of sense to us, particularly for the price. The new Gorillamobile Ori ($80) does not. While the aluminum composite exterior is actually pretty cool, evoking “briefcase of the future” thoughts with brushed and swirled metal finishes, grooves, and hinges, Ori is so over-designed that we’d never consider actually using it. Open three separate metal flaps to form a huge triangle that suspends your iPad a crazy 5.5″ above a table. Try a different combination of the pieces to convert your iPad for typing use, and another for a traditional video stand. “Inspired by origami,” Ori does a lot. But the less expensive, more cleanly-designed Yogi does almost all of Ori’s actually useful tricks without roughly tripling the iPad’s thickness, adding significantly to its weight, or requiring all of the confusing lid manipulation involved in this design. Both cases also share almost the same nice white and gray plastic iPad case, so the only difference is in screen protection, which Ori adds at considerable cost. Our impression: in light of Apple’s Smart Cover, Ori needs to go back to the drawing board for iPad 2 rather than making a hasty return appearance.